State v. Harrison
| Decision Date | 01 April 1987 |
| Docket Number | 18482-KA and 18483-KA,Nos. 18481-K,s. 18481-K |
| Citation | 505 So.2d 783 |
| Parties | STATE of Louisiana, Appellee, v. J.B. HARRISON and James H. Deal, Appellants. |
| Court | Court of Appeal of Louisiana — District of US |
Joe D. Guerriero, Monroe, for appellant, J.B. Harrison.
Gravel & Brady by Helen Ginger Roberts, New Orleans, Davenport, Files & Kelly by Thomas W. Davenport, Jr., Monroe, for appellant, James H. Deal.
William J. Guste, Jr., Atty. Gen., Barbara Rutledge, Asst. Atty. Gen., James A. Norris, Dist. Atty., Joseph T. Mickel, Asst. Dist. Atty., Monroe, for appellee.
Before FRED W. JONES, Jr., SEXTON and LINDSAY, JJ.
The defendants, J.B. Harrison and James H. Deal, were convicted of numerous counts of forgery, receiving stolen things and illegal possession of stolen things in violation of LSA-R.S. 14:69 and 72. The defendants appeal their convictions and sentences. For the following reasons, we affirm the convictions and sentences of the defendants, J.B. Harrison and James H. Deal.
The defendant, J.B. Harrison, was a professional bookmaker in Ouachita Parish. Harrison was registered as such with federal authorities and possessed a federal wagering stamp.
The defendant, James H. Deal, was employed by Harrison in his bookmaking business and was registered as a clerk on Harrison's federal wagering stamp. Prior to being employed by Harrison, Deal retired from the Monroe Police Department after 22 years of service. While on the force, Deal was assigned to the check and forgery division.
Charles Bentley was an officer and the secretary of the Bastrop Federal Savings and Loan Association. Bentley was one of Harrison's customers and was involved in wagering on sporting events, as well as dice and card games. Originally, Bentley paid his gambling debts to Harrison in cash, but in the early 1980's, Bentley began issuing checks for large sums of money on the operating accounts of the Bastrop Federal Savings and Loan Association. These checks contained the fraudulent and unauthorized facsimile signature of Bastrop Federal's president, Max Dollar, and the initials of Charles Bentley.
Charles Bentley was in charge of reconciling the association's bank statement and in this way concealed the embezzlement of funds from the association which he used to pay his gambling debts. The checks executed by Bentley were given to Harrison in payment of Bentley's gambling debts, but were made payable to fictitious payees. Harrison endorsed some of the checks and Deal endorsed others. Harrison and Deal endorsed the checks with the names of the fictitious payees and negotiated, issued, and transferred the checks at either Central Bank or Ouachita National Bank. Harrison and Deal were both known at the banks where the instruments were negotiated and tellers from the banks testified at trial that Harrison and Deal negotiated and transferred the various checks. Harrison and Deal, who were known to the tellers, never represented themselves to be the fictitious payees, although they endorsed the checks in the names of the fictitious payees.
In April of 1983, the embezzlement was discovered during an audit of the Bastrop Federal Savings and Loan Association by federal bank examiners. Bentley pled guilty in federal court to embezzlement and was given a prison sentence. Testimony at trial indicated that Bentley's embezzled over 4.8 million dollars from Bastrop Federal Savings and Loan Association. During the investigation of the matter, Harrison and Deal denied any knowledge that Bentley was embezzling funds. They claimed that Bentley told them he was representing a group of wealthy people from Arkansas in making wagers and that the people wanted to conceal their identities. For that reason, they would give money to Bentley to place wagers with Harrison, then Bentley would issue one check, drawn on Bastrop Federal, to a fictitious payee, to cover the debt. Any winnings were conveyed to Bentley in cash. Harrison and Deal also alleged that fictitious payees were used on the checks in order to reduce Harrison's tax liability to the IRS.
On August 1, 1985, Harrison was charged by grand jury indictment with 10 counts of theft, or in the alternative, with 5 counts of receiving stolen things and 5 counts of illegal possession of stolen things. On October 11, 1985, Harrison was charged by grand jury indictment with 34 counts of forgery. On that same date, Deal was charged by grand jury indictment with 11 counts of forgery.
The three cases were consolidated and the defendants waived the right to a jury trial, choosing instead to be tried before a judge alone.
The State sought to prove that Harrison and Deal knew or should have known about Bentley's embezzlement and that they knew or should have known they were receiving stolen funds.
The State also alleged that Harrison and Deal were principals to the forgery committed by Bentley in the unauthorized use of the facsimile signature to issue the checks, as well as in the issuing and transferring of those forged checks with the intent to defraud, knowing that the checks were forged; the State also alleged that Harrison and Deal committed forgery by signing the endorsement on the checks in the names of fictitious payees in order to defraud either Bastrop Federal or the Internal Revenue Service.
At trial, the State presented testimony from bank tellers indicating that either Harrison or Deal negotiated each of the forty-eight instruments mentioned in the indictments against them. There was also testimony concerning the manner in which checks made out for more than $10,000 were negotiated. When those checks were presented at the bank, the teller, rather than cashing the checks, prepared and issued several smaller cashiers checks, also made payable to fictitious payees. These cashiers checks were then given by the bank teller to J.B. Harrison. This process of negotiating checks in excess of $10,000 was utilized to circumvent a requirement that all checks for more than $10,000 cashed by a bank had to be reported to the Internal Revenue Service by means of a currency transaction report (CTR).
The State presented the testimony of a handwriting expert who positively identified the endorsements on many of the checks as being those of Harrison and Deal. On other checks, the expert indicated there was strong reason to believe that either Harrison or Deal wrote the fictitious endorsements.
The State presented the testimony of Max Dollar, former president of Bastrop Federal Savings and Loan Association, who stated that Bentley alone was responsible for reconciling the association's bank statements and that these were reviewed on an annual basis by the accounting firm hired by the association.
At the close of the State's case, attorneys for both Harrison and Deal moved for judgments of acquittal on the ground that the State had failed to prove the charges against them.
As to Deal, the court granted that motion on count two, contained in the indictment against him, because the State failed to introduce into evidence the check forming the basis of the charge.
As to Harrison, the court found that many of the counts in the indictment charging him with theft were based upon the same checks for which he was charged with forgery in the second indictment against him. In order to avoid a claim of double jeopardy, the court granted Harrison's motion for acquittal as to counts four, five, seven, eight, nine and ten in the indictment charging him with theft. The defendants' motions for judgments of acquittal were denied as to all other counts against them.
The defense then presented the testimony of several of Bentley's co-workers who indicated that Bentley seemed to have money and lived well but that they were unaware at the time that Bentley was embezzling funds from Bastrop Federal.
The defense also presented the testimony of Charles Bentley, who confirmed the story he told Harrison that he was placing bets for a group of people from Arkansas and in order to protect their identities, checks were issued to fictitious payees on the account of Bastrop Federal. He retracted his statements first made to investigators, in which he stated that Harrison told him to make the checks payable to fictitious payees.
Deal testified in his own behalf and claimed he had no suspicion that Bentley was paying his gambling debts with embezzled funds. Deal also claimed that there was nothing wrong with endorsing and cashing checks issued to fictitious payees as long as they were not trying to falsely obtain funds actually meant for another person.
As to the indictment charging Harrison with 10 counts of theft, he was found guilty of three counts of the alternative charges of receiving stolen things and one count of illegal possession of stolen things. The other counts contained in the indictment were dismissed pursuant to a motion for a judgment of acquittal. As to counts one and two of the indictment, Harrison was sentenced to serve four years at hard labor on each count and pay a fine of $3,000 on each count or in default of payment of the fine, to serve an additional six months in jail. The terms of imprisonment on counts one and two were to run concurrently to each other, but consecutively to any other sentence.
As to count three, Harrison was ordered to serve six years at hard labor and pay a fine of $3,000 or in default thereof, to serve an additional six months in jail.
As to count six, Harrison was ordered to serve two years at hard labor and pay a fine of $2,000, or in default thereof, to serve an additional four months imprisonment.
The terms of imprisonment of counts three and six were to run concurrently to each other but consecutively to any other sentence imposed.
As to the indictment charging Harrison with thirty-four counts of forgery, the trial court found him not guilty of two counts and guilty of thirty-two counts of forgery. On counts...
To continue reading
Request your trial
-
Harrison v. Norris
...of $113,000. His convictions and sentences, which were appealed, became final and he began serving his sentence. State v. Harrison, 505 So.2d 783 (La.App. 2d Cir.1987), writ denied. CCrP Art. Harrison was thereafter convicted of related crimes in federal court and was given sentences to run......
-
State v. Matthews
... ... The record reflects that no evidence was introduced to establish that defendant made the counterfeit check in question. In State v. Harrison, 505 So.2d 783 (La. App. 2 Cir.1987), writ denied, 512 So.2d 433 (La.1987), it was undisputed that the defendants "endorsed the various checks with the names of the fictitious payees and negotiated the checks, receiving the proceeds." Id. at 792. The court stated: ... The defendants contend that ... ...
-
State v. Jones
...at issue purportedly was part of the payment to Creel and, thus, was within the res gestae of the offense. Compare State v. Harrison, 505 So.2d 783, 789 (La.App. 2nd Cir.), writs denied, 512 So.2d 433, 434 (La.1987). Res gestae is defined as "events speaking for themselves under the immedia......
-
State v. Fields
... ... Pierre, 93-0893, p. 4 (La.2/3/94), 631 So.2d 427, 428 ("Only those persons who knowingly participate in the planning or execution of a crime are principals ... [m]ere presence at the scene is therefore not enough to `concern' an individual in the crime."); cf. State v. Harrison, 505 So.2d 783, 792-793 (La.App. 2d Cir.1987)(knowledge that co-defendant was not authorized to use the signature machine to issue the checks would make the defendants principals to the forgery committed by him) ... In State v. Tomlinson, 457 So.2d 651, 654 (La.1984), this Court ... ...